In conjunction with the two Ohio-based Confucius Institutes, OATC co-sponsored the “Confucius Institute Professional Development Workshop for Teachers of Chinese” at The Ohio State University on September 20th.

This all-day event included panel discussions and workshops to assist Chinese language instructors in the development of their professional skills, curricula, and course materials.

The featured speaker was Galal Walker, Ph.D. Dr. Walker, a professor in OSU’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Director of OSU’s National East Asian Languages Resource Center.

At the end of the event, the participants took part in a tree-planting ceremony at The Ohio Statehouse.

Upcoming OATC Events

OATC has been invited to participate in the Fourth Annual Chinese Teachers Conference at the University of South Florida to be held this October. The topic of this year’s conference is “Fostering Global Citizens: Integrating Culture in Teaching Chinese Language.” At the conference, OATC’s President will be conducting a workshop titled “Using Videos to Increase Student Engagement and to Create Cultural Authenticity in the Classroom.”

Chinese teachers interested in obtaining a list of the various online resources and video sources used in Ms. Wu’s presentation can contact her at pwu@columbusschoolforgirls.org. It should be noted that virtually everything is geared towards teaching Chinese rather than other languages.

Talk of the Town

Ever since an article appeared on OFLA’s Facebook page last month criticizing the teaching and learning of Mandarin, the local Chinese community has been excitedly discussing the pros and cons of the article.

Apparently, the author’s premise is that, since only a small percentage of native Chinese speakers speak Mandarin with a Beijing accent, American students should not bother learning to speak this way or even to study Mandarin at all.

One is reminded of the French teacher (and former OFLA member) we know who was not hired for a teaching position because, having been born outside of Paris, she did not speak French with a Parisian accent. Of course, the same criticism could also be made of English teachers who have Southern or other regional accents.

While we at OATC believe that no one geographical region should have a monopoly on teaching its nation’s language, thanks go out to OFLA for raising this important issue for discussion among the membership.